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Warning: the following article contains material that may be sensitive to Tottenham Hotspur fans. Reader discretion is advised.
Spurs released their official team news ahead of Sunday’s match against Fulham at Craven Cottage, and yes it’s every bit as bad as what you imagined it might be. Five players are ruled out of the match either due to injury or absence — Moussa Sissoko, Harry Kane, Son Heung-Min, Victor Wanyama, and Lucas Moura.
TEAM NEWS: @ericdier (appendicitis) – returned to full training@HKane (ankle) – commenced rehabilitation@LucasMoura7 (knee) – commenced on-field rehabilitation@VictorWanyama (knee) – begun to reintegrate into training
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 18, 2019
Heung-Min Son – away with South Korea at Asian Cup pic.twitter.com/Nc5BH4poRM
That’s super not good! It’s also pretty much what we expected, but just seeing it laid right out there makes it feel all that much more painful.
There is a silver lining to this giant bastard of a thundercloud, and that’s Eric Dier, who has returned to full training. The tweet implies, but does not outright state, that he would be in contention to return to the starting lineup against the Cottagers, and boy oh boy let’s hope he’s ready. With Moussa Sissoko out we’re down to potentially starting Harry Winks and Oliver Skipp in midfield, which, while cool, doesn’t exactly inspire a ton of confidence.
Update: WELP.
#thfc MP says Dier is only fit enough for the bench on Sunday.
— Dan Kilpatrick (@Dan_KP) January 18, 2019
We’ll get into what a potential Tottenham starting lineup might look like a little later, but for now, you can send shipments of deer antler spray directly to Hotspur Way Training Centre.